Samsung launching the Galaxy Note 4 early, but not directly because of the iPhone 6

Samsung is reportedly going to release its Galaxy Note 4 in South Korea on September 26th, which would be earlier than the company had planned. Plenty of reports today are suggesting that is because the company has been frightened into launching sooner by the success of the iPhone 6 Plus phablet device. However, after speaking to my source at Samsung, that is not entirely the case.

Samsung launched the Note 4 at IFA three weeks ago, but decided to wait until a month after the release of the iPhone 6 Plus before rolling out the device. That date was set for mid-October (the 17th the mooted date), but in Korea the company will pull the trigger quicker after the huge success of the iPhone 6 Plus. The Korean Times cites a Samsung employee who said the following:

The positive reaction from consumers to those two Apple devices prompted us to launch the Note 4 earlier than previously scheduled. Samsung will be aggressive in promoting the Note 4 as it's true that we are being challenged and pressured amid a difficult situation.

So, what about these reports that Samsung has been scared into this action by the iPhone? Well, my own source within the company says that the company is not scared of the iPhone 6, but that it has always been wary of it. In other words, it is no shock to Samsung that the 6 Plus sold so well, it was hardly an unprecedented success. The company has been planning for serious competition from Apple for months, and as my source puts it "strategized around Apple's launch". He went on to say:

It makes no sense to the roadmap for Samsung to launch quickly in Korea because of fear. The iPhone 6 Plus is not even available in the country yet, it will not be arriving on the 26th (when the iPhone rolls out to more countries) so there is no direct competition in Korea.

To sum that up, Samsung has known the iPhone 6 would prove a threat long before launch and the company is rolling out early in Korea because it wants to have a strong sales base in its homeland. While the company is planning around Apple, it still counts on selling a huge amount of Galaxy Note 4 handsets, with one official saying "Samsung aims to ship 15 million Note 4's in the first 30 days after the product launches, which is very ambitious given the challenging situation."

To put that in perspective, the Galaxy Note 3 took three months to shift 10 million units, so Samsung's ambitions are truly lofty. Scared or not, with the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus looming, it seems unlikely that the company will meet those expectations. The Korean Times is not saying whether the Note 4 will now be pulled forward in other regions, but my source says the release timetable set out by the company pre-launch is still intact.

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Luke JonesLuke Jones is the Managing Editor at MobileBurn.com and is the person you need to speak to about the content on the site. Luke studied creative writing at degree level before carving out a reputation as a freelance tech writer. He settled here at MobileBurn, where he reviews devices and contributes to the news, as well as overseeing the site's content and direction.